Page 117 of Four Promises to Love

“How…how did you know where to find them?” Nell asked.

Caleb shrugged. “There’s a coaching inn favored by the rough-and-ready crowd. Sure enough, they were there. I told them about the final clue—and about the ring being kept in the study of Bottoms House. We made a bargain: they could bring both back to Carver as part of the payment for Iris’s release, with the rest of the jewels to follow.”

Finn’s chest clenched as he voiced her worst fears.

“You’ve doomed us,” she whispered.

“I saved us. Bought us more time,” Caleb argued. “When Carver receives the ring and final riddle, he’ll know we’re carrying out his orders. Iris will be safe. We’ll all be safe⁠—”

“Carver means to kill Iris.” She threw up her hands in frustration and despair. “To kill us. We know too much, and the only reason any of us are still alive is because he needs us to find the treasure.”

“You’re lying.” Caleb’s throat bobbed. “If you believe that, why are you trying to find the treasure?”

“Because having the treasure in hand is our only leverage! Our only chance of saving Iris and ourselves. But now you’ve given him the ring and the final clue, whetting his appetite for the rest. Knowing that greedy, impatient bastard, he’ll come to Chuddums and try to find the jewels himself. If he succeeds, he will kill Iris and the rest of us.”

“You’re wrong.” Caleb’s face looked pale in the watery dawn light. “I specifically said that I was exchanging the ring and final clue for the safety of all the Hawks⁠—”

“And you think I have gone soft?” Finn’s laugh was harsh. “When have cutthroats cared about honoring conditions? Use your bleeding noggin. You’ve removed the only power we had in the situation. Thanks to you, Carver will now see us—and Iris—as dispensable.”

The sudden panic in Caleb’s eyes revealed that she’d hit her mark.

He balled his hands. “At least I tried to save Iris. Which is more than you’ve been doing.”

“I’ve been doing everything in my power to⁠—”

“To snare that lordling of yours,” Caleb snarled. “He is all you care about. You’re supposed to be our leader, but you think only of yourself and your own selfish desires. Do you even recall our motto, Finn? No Hawk flies alone—but you’ve been doing it the entire time. Sneaking around with your lover, keeping your visions secret, and making plans without consulting the rest of us.”

“That is not true,” she said desperately. “I tried to do my best for all of you!”

“Your best? You’ve made us forget who we are.”

One by one, Caleb gestured at the Hawks.

“Take Simon. He looks like a clodhopper with that stupid straw hat he wears like a crown. He doesn’t realize that the haberdasher gave it to him out of pity—that the villagers all pity him. To them, he’ll always be an outsider, the way Felix Pearce was.”

Looking stricken, Simon ripped off the hat and ducked his head.

“And Nell,” Caleb continued. “You bought her a shawl, and now she thinks she could be that farmer lad’s sweetheart. But do you think he’ll want her when he learns she’s a bastard some whore dumped at an orphanage?”

A pained sound left Nell.

“Then there’s Tansy.” He sighed. “She’s the apple of everyone’s eye in the village. You’ve fooled all those bumpkins into believing she’s a sweet and harmless little girl—but we know that ain’t true.”

“I am sweet,” Tansy said, her voice wobbling.

“Do you know what your worst failing is, Finn? You taught us to deceive ourselves.”

The statement flew true, piercing Finn in the chest.

“All these years, we survived because we had no illusions about how cruel life is to people like us. We survived because we had each other. But you—you broke us.”

Caleb’s accusation widened the crack in Finn’s heart, and one by one, her failures bled out. Everything was her fault. She’d thought herself so clever, but she hadn’t found the treasure. Iris was still in danger. Because of her, Xenia had been held at knifepoint. Owen despised her and never wanted to see her again. Even Finn’s own gang was turning on her: she saw the doubt on Nell and Simon’s faces, the stony condemnation on Caleb’s.

She wetted her lips, wanting to defend herself.

But no words came out.

“There is only one thing left to do.” In that instant, Caleb snatched the reins from her. “We Hawks do not leave our own to languish in the enemy’s hands. If Carver will not release Iris, then we will have to break her free.”